Creating successful e-learning - how to get started with digital training

After every New Year, the gyms are filled with motivated people who have decided to take up their training. They buy new workout clothes, go to classes, book lessons with a PT and then fall away one by one during February and March.

The reason is usually that you are trying to make too big a change at once. And the same is true when it comes time to structure the learning and information flow in the organisation.

Many come to us motivated with lofty goals of rolling out a complete digital training programme for the entire chain. That's a good goal, but how do you avoid the trap of trying to make too big a leap in too short a time?

Research suggests that the secret to creating new habits and patterns of behaviour is to take it step by step. Setting smaller interim goals that are reasonable to achieve in the foreseeable future. To take the gym example again, continuity is important to get used to actually going to the gym. But just as important, once you've got there, is to set your training at a level that you can manage in the long term, even if you have a bad day.

What can we learn from this when creating e-learning?

Building effective learning in your organisation is something that will give you a competitive advantage in both the short and long term. That's why you should keep the goal of building a comprehensive training programme, but let it be on a longer time horizon and then stop thinking about it right now. Instead, break it down into small goals that you can easily accomplish in a short period of time. Take just one manageable step at a time and you'll soon be there.

Rather than starting with a thorough and well-produced first course, our experience is that you will benefit from starting with a short and simple course, and then moving on to a slightly larger production. The reason is that it will help you to actually get started much faster and you will then gain important knowledge about what works for you much faster.

Examples of common minor first courses include:

• Operational policy, or other key governance documents
• Objectives/Focus for the coming period
• How a particular system many people work with works
• Product training for sales representatives
• mm.

This will give you, the course creator, the habit of working with Evercate. Creating and launching a first course will give you lots of lessons and understanding on how to get the best results from the work you do going forward. When you look back, you will probably wish you had done some things differently. This is perfectly normal, so isn't it better to draw those lessons from a shorter course that's easy to do again?

At the same time, starting with a simple and short course gives you another key to success later on.

Get your employees to learn with e-learning

Evercate is easy for participants to use and works equally well on a phone, tablet or computer. It's easy to think "if I just make a course and send out course invitations, everyone will do it straight away". It's certainly not impossible to get there, but it's a behaviour you need to create and encourage. So the same applies here as for those who join gyms after the New Year - to create a new pattern of behaviour you need to take it step by step and set reasonable goals along the way.

Creating your e-learning and adding users is one thing, but the change to start with e-learning also needs to be embedded in the organisation for you to have a good outcome. If you start with a more limited part, and gradually get the organisation used to the new way of working, you will have a better effect when you go bigger later on.

Three tips to increase course completion:

1. Communicate expectations
   Communicate in advance that digital training is coming and that everyone is expected to do it and why it is important. The more places that information comes from, the better. This creates buy-in throughout the organisation and removes the surprise of a course invitation from an unknown system suddenly landing in your inbox.
   
   
2. Set targets
   Both internal targets for how many people will pass the course, and targets that you communicate, such as when participants will complete the training. Your internal targets will make it easier for you to monitor and the target for when it will be completed will make it easier for course participants to prioritise the course.
   
   
3. Reminders
   Working with reminders after a course invitation has been sent out is both easy and effective in Evercate. This will also resonate with the expectations you communicated earlier. Then, as it gets closer to the target date for completion, it may be time to start using personal reminders, asking each department head to remind those who are still not ready under him or her.
   
   

Doing the steps above will be easy if you start on a small scale. In addition, if you use the automation of Evercate along with reports and the team leader role to engage your department heads to help, it won't take much hand-holding on your part once the ball is rolling. At the same time, your trainees will learn that it is easy to implement the training and soon all parts of the organisation will have a routine for working with e-learning.

Some organisations we work with tell us that their employees start actively requesting e-learning once they are up and running. That they themselves find it such a smooth and effective way to absorb information from the organisation. So it's getting there.

Learn what works for your e-learning

Once the course is launched and completed, it's time to learn from the results what worked well and what can be improved. Follow up what your course participants thought of the first course, follow up what your department heads thought. Think about what you would have liked to do differently in the whole process from course creation to follow-up and then use all this information when it comes time for the next course.

In many parts of the business world, agile or lean are popular words. These philosophies are something we also advocate when it comes to learning. Iterate out what works best for you, in your organisation with your circumstances and challenges. It's usually much better in the long run than if you go all out to get it perfect right at the start.

Summary - how to succeed with e-learning in your organisation

1. Start small
   Make a small, simple and limited first course that you can easily redo when you learn what works and what doesn't for you. Don't be afraid that it might not be perfect from the start. The first course provides many lessons that are valuable going forward and many times, based on that, you want to do it again in the long run. Better to redo a small course, and learn quickly than the other way around.
   
   
2. Anchor in the organisation
   Communicate that there will be a digital course, its purpose and your expectations of the course participants. Embed in all levels of the organisation. This is also a step that will be much easier with a small, defined first course.
   
   
3. Reminder and follow-up
   Use the automation in Evercate for reminders and follow-up. Use others in the organisation to follow up in person towards the end to catch procrastinators.
   
   
4. Learn what works for you
   Iterate on a way of working that works for you. Take small steps, learn what works for you and change what doesn't work along the way rather than aiming to have it all right when you get started.

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